The Impact of Physical Facilities on Students’ Level of ...

1 Journal of Education and Practice ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) , , 2016 38 The Impact of Physical Facilities on Students Level of Motivation and Academic Performance in Senior Secondary Schools in South West Nigeria Dr. Comfort Olufunke Akomolafe1* Olubunmi Adesua2 of Educational Foundations and Management,Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti of Curriculum Studies, School of Education,College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti Abstract The paper examines the relevance of Physical Facilities in enhancing the Level of motivation and the academic performance of senior secondary school students in South West Nigeria.

2 The study adopted ex-post facto The population consists of all senior secondary students in South West Nigeria. The sample for the study include one thousand and fifty senior secondary school students from three states out of the six states in the South West Geo-political zone. The researcher made use of a questionnaire and an inventory to collect data. A self designed questionnaire tagged Motivation and Academic Performance of Senior Secondary School Students (MAPSSS) was used to elicit information from the respondent. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between Physical Facilities and students Level of motivation and academic performance.

3 Based on the findings of the study , more Physical , human and material resources that are of high quality should be made available in public school to motivate students towards learning. More priority should be given to allocation of funds to make the public school conducive for teaching and learning to take place; this will improve the academic standard of public schools. Keywords: Physical Facilities , students motivation, academic performance, senior secondary schools. INTRODUCTION It appears that the Physical Facilities in the school setting go a long way to motivate students to learn.

4 Physical Facilities in any school system range from the school plant, that is the school buildings, classroom , library, laboratories, toilet Facilities , learning materials to other infrastructures that would likely motivate students towards learning. Experience has shown that most of the Physical Facilities that are germane to effective learning/academic performance of students appears not to be sufficient in our public secondary schools today. Those available seem not to be of standard quality, some seem to lack maintenance culture, while some are in dilapidated conditions.

5 The status of Physical Facilities especially in our public secondary schools today appears to be of great concern to educators. It seems that the provision of these school Facilities have dwindled over the years, perhaps due to increase in school enrolment rate which had led to population explosion in public schools. It has been observed that school Physical Facilities are essential tools to facilitate and stimulate learning programmes. Teachers need them in an ideal working environment. Experience shows that if Physical Facilities are available, students tend to have interest in learning; this will invariably lead to high performance.

6 A close observation of the performance of secondary school students perhaps could be traced to lack of Physical Facilities and a motivating learning environment. Most schools seems to lack the necessary Facilities that could enhance effective teaching and learning as a result little is expected from students in terms of academic performance. Experience shows that inadequate Physical Facilities have some adverse effect on students interest to learn. Hence, this may invariably affect their academic performance. In a situation where students are not having access to normal Facilities like library equipment and inadequate seats in the classroom it is observed that these could contribute to low performance of students.

7 Apart from protecting student from sun, rain, heat and cold, there should be enough space, seats, laboratory and internet Facilities and a host of other Physical Facilities that could enhance the Level of motivation and academic performance of students. In The Nation Nigeria daily newspaper of October, 2009, students were reported to have demonstrated over the condition of infrastructures in public schools in Nigeria. It was therefore, believed that where Facilities are adequately provided, there seems to be an increase in students performance.

8 School Physical Facilities Physical Facilities refers to the school plant, that is, the school buildings, classrooms, library, laboratories, toilet Facilities , offices and other materials and infrastructures that would likely motivate students towards learning. Physical Facilities are germane to effective learning and academic performance of students. In support of this, Hallak (1990), identified Facilities as the main factor contributing to academic achievement in the school system. They include the school buildings, classroom , libraries, laboratories and recreational equipment among others.

9 Journal of Education and Practice ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) , , 2016 39 Hallak claimed that the quality, appropriateness and adequacy of these items contribute to performance in the school system. Adeyemi (2008), opined that performance is a measure of educational output. Academic performance can be viewed as the extent to which an individual learner acts or does a piece of work, how well or poor he/she does the job or the activities within a learning process.

10 Poor performance, however can be regarded as having performed below the required academic (1994), referred to poor performance as performance that fall below the desired standard. Recent studies have emphasized the importance of the availability of Physical Facilities . Summarizing Ajayi and Ayodele (2001), they emphasized that the availability of these resources are quite important to achieving effectiveness in instructional delivery and supervision in the school system. They further buttressed the fact that non-availability of basic Facilities such as classrooms, office accommodation, workshops, sporting Facilities , laboratories, library et cetera which is being experienced in secondary schools is a perfect reflection of what obtains in the university system.